Improved die for swaging hands for watches



IINrrn rares FFICId-O GEO. HASTINGS, 0F WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS.

lSpecication'forming part of Letters Patent N0.541,89, dated May 22, 1866.

` To all whom tt may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE IIASTINGS, of XValtham, in the county of Middlesex and State ot` Massachusetts, have invented a new1 and useful Improvement in Dies or Mechanism for Making Watch or Time-Piece Hands; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of Which- Figure lis a top view of the lower die-block. Fig. 21s an under-side view ot' the upper one. Fig. 3 is a vertical section ot' the two.

The object of these die-blocks is to make a watch-hand not only with the finger and its annulus, but with a cup or tube projeetin g from such annulus.

In the ordinary way heretofore practiced of making a Watch-hand the holding or spindle tube thereof has been formed by soldering to the rin or circular part ot` the hand a cylinder ot' brass, and subsequently turning down and boring such cylinder until converted into a tube of the right size.V BesidesV the labor and expense attendant on so makin gthe tube of the hand, such tube is liable to become detached from the part to which it may bc afxed, for there is more or less difficulty in properly uniting the tube to its ring by the soldering process. 4

The Watch-han d m ade by my improved mechauism has its spindle-tube formed in one piece with the ring and the ringer, and consequently the union ot' the ring and the tube will be perfect, and there is no danger of the two becoming detached from one another either in the process of litt-ing them to a Watchspindle or in that of making the tube.

In carrying out my invention I combine with those parts of the die by which the iinger and the rin g are struck or formed in one piece of metal a certain addition or further dies t'or forming an extension from the ring, such eX- tension being either in the form of a cup or tube or a projection capable ot being converted in to a tube. I prefer to make the projection in the form ot a cup, and subsequently to remove the bottom thereof so as to convert the cup into a tube.

There may be combined with the dies for making the cup a punch and a dischargingpassage, such punch being to remove from the cupthe bottom thereof, the part so removed passing down through the passage.

In the drawings, a and b are those parts of the dieblocks A B which serve to give form to thc finger ot the watch-hand. c, d, and e are the parts by which the flat ring from which the linger projects is formed.

Above the part c for making the ring is a depression or chamber, f of a suitable diame ter and depth for the formation ot the tubeprojection, such depression being made in the die-block A. The part c', which forms the eye of the ring, may be projected beyond the dotted lines so as to enter the chamber j'(\vhen the blocks are in contact) in order to form a cavityin the tube-projection or convert it into a cup.

Fig. 4 is a top view, and Fig. 5 a longitudinal section, ot" one ot' the hands as made by such dies. In these Iigures, c is the inger, b 'the ring, `and c the tube-projection.

Fig. 6 is a vertical section of two die-blocks, showing another mode in which I have contemplated the application ot' my invention. In this Iigure the ring-making part of the dies is shown as partly formed in each block.

The eye punch or former o or c c may be dispensed with when it may be desirable to form the hand without an eye and subsequently to make the eye by separate means. So, in ease it may be desirable to make the projection with the eye to extend entirely through it, the part c c may be extended or constructed so as to accomplish this. and to force the surplus metal removed into a passage formed through the other die-block. I do not, however, consider this so goed a plan of procedure as to form the tube-projection either with or Without a cavity, and afterward and by other means to complete the tube or impart to such projection a tubular form.

4I would observe that -the improved dieblocks constructed as above described are in general to be employed for forming in a piece of metal the Watch-hand, the separation of the hand from the superfluous metal of the piece and the nishingof thehaud being,` effected by eye-former c or c c', the tube-projeetion-formother dies or suitable menus. ing ehamberf, the ring-former d, and the n- I claim as my inventionger-dies a b, The Whole being1 substantially as l. The combination and arrangement of the and for the purpose Speeied. tube-projection-forming chamber j' with the GEO. HASTINGS. uger and ring forming parts a. b d, made as described.

2. The combination :md arrangement of the l Witnesses R. H. EDDY, G. H. WASHBURN. 

